Ancient Mesopotamia

Terms

• City-state

• Ancient Mesopotamia

• Polytheism

• Ziggurats

• Cuneiform

• Code of Hammurabi

• Epic of Gilgamesh

• River Tigris

• River Euphrates

Recap

Paleolithic – 200,000 – 10,000 BCE

• Migration out of Africa

• Hunter/gatherer

• Nomadic

• Development of stone tools

• Less hierarchical

• Development of religions

• More matriarchical

• Development of material culture

Neolithic – 10,000 – 8,000 BCE

• Neolithic revolution – Domestication of plants

through agriculture

– Settling in permanent housing

– Fuels husbandry

• More hierarchical

• More patriarchical

• Structure in religion

Fertile Crescent Ancient Mesopotamia

https://bftaxhelp.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/mesopotamia2.jpg

Civilization

• A state of society that is more advanced than before, based on the relationships and interactions between human groups, and development of culture and government

• Historically linked to permanence, but permanent society is not a requirement of the modern definition of civilization

Ancient Mesopotamia • City-State – a political arrangement where an urban center

exercises control of the nearby countryside but is independent of any other government.

• Fertile Crescent = Ancient Mesopotamia

• Sumer – Uruk, Ur

• Akkad – Babylon

• Assyria

• Phoenicia

https://bftaxhelp.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/mesopotamia2.jpg

Religion

• Polytheistic

• Dependent on the goodwill of the gods

Ziggurat of Ur today - Iraq

Epic of Gilgamesh

Tablet 10

Tablet 11

Other characteristics of Mesopotamia

• Monarchical

• Patriarchical

• Class structure and separation

• Slavery

• Organized military

Uruk period

• 3,800 – 3000 BCE

• Period of innovation and creativity – wheel and lunar calendar

• Writing – Cuneiform

https://wikis.engrade.com/cuneiformimages2

Bronze Age 3300 BCE – 1200 BCE

First Empires

• Akkadians and King Sargon – Conquer Sumer circa 2350 BCE

– First empire – Akkadian empire

– Extends to the Mediterranean Sea

• Babylonian period – 1750- 1200 BCE – Emergence of gods associated with specific elements

and are gender specific • Concept of ethics and morals a part of relationship with gods

– Irrigation system and in mathematics we get the decimal system

– Code of Hammurabi • eye for an eye system

Code of Hammurabi

Recap

• 6,000 BCE civilization in the Fertile Crescent known as Mesopotamia

• Shared characteristics in religion, government, cultural characteristics

• Uruk period

• Dynastic Period

• Akkadian Period

• Babylonian Period in the south and in the North the Assyrian Period